Julia Pierce | August 7, 2026

Several months ago, a phone conversation with Marie Berlanga, produced information that Phyllis Blocker had already known that she would not complete her four year term as Tax Commissioner before she ran for re-election in 2024. Marie has always done her best to educate me on the goings on in this community, from the commission, to the sheriff, to the voting, and she has always told the truth as far as I know.

That being said, there wasn’t any information, other than Marie’s word, at the time, to suggest there was any validity to this at the time, but what I found as of the Board of Commissioner’s meeting minutes in January of 2026, indicated that the county knew that Phyllis was going to retire, because they discussed “look[ing] into Election Year – if Georgina can serve out term.”

This suggests that Georgina had a heads up about the election before anyone else did. Why does this matter?

The way that the retirement by Phyllis happened so sudden, as written in The Journal on April 1, 2016, and the way that a special election was scheduled, which requires a quick response, and the fact that Georgina had no challengers, which caused the special election to be canceled, presents the question, “was it a truly fair election if the county was already discussing Georgina completing Phyllis’ unexpired term?”

It’s true that they can appoint a replacement until a special election was held, but why weren’t we told that Phyllis was retiring in January, when the county was discussing her replacement? Why did they only wait until April 1, 2026 to tell us that she has already retired? When did she actually retire?

Interestingly enough, we received word, only 7 days later that Georgina was sworn in as Phyllis’ successor as Tax Commissioner of Marion County.

Was Marie Berlanga telling the truth when she indicated that Phyllis already knew she would be retiring before she could finish her term? If so, why would Phyllis even run for another year, since she is required to sign campaign documents that require her to attest that she will fulfill her entire term to the best of her ability?

Does it seem like this process was very transparent among the citizens?

What do you think?

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